What Is Basic Attention Token?

Basic Attention Token has been a pretty interesting project in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency. More specifically, this token is designed to transform digital advertising as a whole. It is a bold venture by the BAT team, and the token has become a big part of their Brave browser as well. It is evident that digital advertising will need to undergo some big changes in the future, but it remains to be seen if Basic Attention Token holds the key in this regard.

Why Does Basic Attention Token Matter?

Anyone who has ever opened a webpage in a browser will have seen some form of advertising along the way. There is a growing amount of advertising on various websites, and people often rely on ad blockers to stop seeing them. With Basic Attention Token, things are very different. Users can block ads completely, pay to see different ads, or simply view regular ads and earn BAT tokens as a result. It’s a give-and-take concept which seems to have worked quite well so far.

How Does it all Work?

Under the hood, Basic Attention Token uses the Ethereum blockchain to issue and distribute BAT tokens. This token can be freely exchanged between publishers, users, and advertisers. With the BAT token, a wide range of advertising and attention-based services can be obtained on the Brave platform. This token only works within the Brave browser itself, as it is not integrated into Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer at this time. Whether or not that situation will change in the future has yet to be determined.

With so many middlemen involved in digital advertising, the road ahead for Basic Attention Token will not be easy. Cutting the intermediaries out altogether will pose some big challenges, but it makes sense to improve upon this model with blockchain technology. With a native browser supporting Basic Attention Token, the project is off to a good start. It blocks malicious advertisements, trackers, and rewards publishers in a fair manner based on the attention of its users.

Speaking of monitoring user attention, the Brave browser does so in an anonymous manner. Attention is measured in the form of ads viewed and content opened in active browser tabs. Users viewing ads receive BATs for their efforts, and publishers will get the majority of revenue in the end. It is a solution that works quite well for all parties involved. Most of the more common browser plugins do not work in Brave as of yet, but it is possible things will change for the better in the coming months and years.

A Look at the BAT Roadmap

Some interesting changes will be coming to Basic Attention Token in the future. For one, improved anti-fraud measures and dashboard analytics are coming to publishers and users shortly. There is also a plan to scale real ad revenue. Moreover, the team wants to integrate Basic Attention Token into even more applications based on open-source projects with ad buying leverage. It will be interesting to see how this project evolves, but things are slowly falling into place as we speak.

About The Author

JP Buntinx is a FinTech and Bitcoin enthusiast living in Belgium. His passion for finance and technology made him one of the world's leading freelance Bitcoin writers, and he aims to achieve the same level of respect in the FinTech sector.